Marriott Hotels has launched a social game called My Marriott Hotel on Facebook to help fill 50,000 jobs worldwide this year
Marriott uses social gaming to recruit employees
Marriott Hotels has launched a social game called My Marriott Hotel on Facebook to help fill 50,000 jobs worldwide this year.
This is the first time a hotel has used social gaming as a recruitment tool and Marriott is betting it will pay off.
According to the hotel brand’s research, online games have surpassed personal e-mail to become the second most popular activity on the web. They account for 10 percent of time spent online.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, which has more than 500 million active users, now account for more than 25 percent of time spent online.
The game starts with players managing the kitchen of a virtual hotel. They can then move on to other areas of operations. Marriott’s Jobs & Careers page on Facebook launched a month ago and already has 12,000 active users, so the hotel has high hopes for the game’s popularity.
“As Marriott expands in growth markets outside the U.S., and as we seek to attract more Millennials – those between the ages 18 and 27 – to our workforce, we must find new ways to interest them in hospitality careers,” says David Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources, Marriott International.
“This game allows us to showcase the world of opportunities and the growth potential attainable in hospitality careers, especially in cultures where the service industry might be less established or prestigious.”
